Cotton salvaging machines



Aug. 28, 1962 H. MASSEY COTTON SALVAGING MACHINES 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 FiledJan. 6; 1961 .T ii

F165 W F FIG.4

M/\;NVENTOR.

Aug. 28, 1962 H. MASSEY 3,050,922

COTTON SALVAGING MACHINES Filed Jan. 6, 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 WINVENTOR.

Aug. 28, 1962 H. MASSEY COTTON SALVAGING MACHINES 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FiledJan. 6, 1961 FIG. 8

INVENTOR. Elf W FIGIO nits This invention concerns a cotton salvagingmachine.

One of the objects of the invention is to pick up and remove tufts ofcotton which have been knocked down from the plants by mechanicalpicking machines and transferring these tufts to a cage for removal fromthe field to the gin.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine for picking uptufts and bolls of cotton from the ground and from the plants where theyare sticking, after having been dislodged from the cotton bolls on theplants.

Still another object is to provide a machine for removing cotton fromthe ground and from plants which have been knocked down by mechanicalpickers; said machine, includin means for dislodging the cotton tuftsand open bolls from the place of their embedment so that they may bepicked up by air suction with a minimum of trash and dirt.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for dislodging tuftsand bolls of downed cotton from the ground and from parts of the plantsso that they are easily picked up by air suction a distance from theground and from he plants whereby the air suction does not ick up sticksand dirt and particles of leaves and mix them with the cotton salvagedwhereby the cotton trans ferred to the gin by the machine isdown-graded.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a means for keepingthe suction pipes clear and clean of accumulated cotton tufts wherebythey become overloaded or clogged so as to prevent free suction action.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

I attain the foregoing objects by means of the devices, parts andcombinations of parts as shown in the accompanying drawings, in which-EiGURE l is a side elevational view of a cotton salvaging machineembodying my improvements;

FEGURE 2 is a front elevational view thereof;

FIGURE 3 is a horizontal section taken substantially on line 33 ofFIGURE 2 and showing the arrangement of portions of the hood and airpressure pipes, as well as suction pipes;

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of a typical air suction pipe looking downwardthrough the pipe and showing the means for removing the accumulation ofwadded cotton from the lower end opening, of the pipe;

FIGURE 5 is a side elevational view of the device shown in FIGURE 4,showing the means for driving the wad dislodging apparatus;

FIGURE 6 is a rear view of one of the hoods showing the location of theair blowing pipe and the suction pipe;

FIGURE 7 is a plan view of the mechanism which operates the sweep armson the cotton pick up suction p p FIGURE 8 is a side elevational view ofthe mechanism shown in FIGURE 7;

FIGURE 9 is a front elevational view of the mechanism shown in FIGURE 7;and

FIGURE 10 is a semi-diagrammatic drawing of a portion of the powertransmitting apparatus.

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3,050,922 Patented Aug. 28, 1962 Similar numerals refer to similar partsin the several views.

Referring to FIGURE 1, it is to be noted that the entire machine body 2is mounted on two driving wheels 3 and 3. Whereas the left hand frontwheel is shown and marked FIGURE 3, it is to be understood that theright hand wheel marked 3' is a right hand counter part of the leftwheel.

In back of the driving wheels 3 and 3' there is a caster type steeringand rear support wheel 4.

Within the body there is an engine 6 to furnish motive power for themachinery hereinafter mentioned and to drive the wheels 3 and 3' and tootherwise act as a prime mover for the various machine parts. The engineis positioned approximately centrally in the body and above and to therear of the engine there is a cotton receiving cage 7 which is of theconventional type used on conventional cotton picking machines and iswell known to the art.

At the front of the machine body 2 there are three blowers 12, i3 and14, mounted on sub-frame 8 which is pivotally attached at 9 to body 2 toprovide vertical adjustment for the front end of the sub-frame 8. Thesubframe 8 is raised and lowered by hydraulic jack 11. The blowers aredriven by belts 15, 16 and 17, which are, in turn, driven by a pulley 18on shaft 19, connected to the engine 6. These blowers have inlet pipes21, 26* and 22 which are connected with and lead to the suction pipes553-, Etta, and 50b through which the cotton is picked up.

In FIGURE 2 the center hood 26 is shown broken away to illustrate theposition of the suction end 50 of pipe 21. In the hoods 26a and 26b, oneach side of the center hood 26, the suction pipes 5th: and Sikh areindicated by dotted lines only.

The hoods 26, 26a and 251) are each substantially oval or ovoidal inshape when viewed from above, as in a plan view and have rounded frontends 262, rounded rear ends 2611 and vertical sides 2600, and are openedat their tops 26f and along the bottom edges 245g. The bottom edges 26gnormally run close to the surface S of the earth on the field over whichthe machine is operated. Each hood substantially encloses the groundsurface within the perimeter of its lower edge so that the cotton tuftsdislodged and disturbed by air blasts incident to the op- I eration ofthe machine, and blowers 3t) and blowerpipes 412a, 41a, 45, 45a and 45!)will not be scattered, but will be confined within the hood where theycan be picked up by suction pipes 50b, 59 and 50a.

' A special blower 30 in the center body part provides a draft of airwhich is drawn through blower inlets 3th: and forced out through outletspipe 37. This pipe ex tends forwardly of the body and is connected to atransverse manifold pipe 38 which extends across the front of themachine. From this pipe there are branch pressure pipes 40 and 41 (asshown in the hood 216) which extend outward through the lower part ofthe sides of hood 26. Air issuing from the lower end openings 42 isdirected transversely onto the plants A in cotton row B and from opening43 onto the plnats C in cotton row D. Air issuing from these pipes tendsto dislodge any loose cotton tufts or bolls'that may be on the ground orin between the plants. A further pressure pipe 45a, branches from theforwardly extending pipe 37 and extends downward to an outlet at 48which is in the proximate middle of each hood. Air issuing from thispipe tends to disturb, dislodge and blow any loose cotton that may be inthe area between the rows B and D. These drafts of air make it possiblefor the suction pipes Silo, 5b and Ebb to gather up the loose cottonWithin the ditch area P which is covered by the hood.

In addition to the air pressure and blowing pipes, above mentioned,there are suction pipes 56*, Ella and Sill; in the rear portion of eachhood. These suction pipes are connected to the air inlet pipes 2t), 21,22 of the blowers 13, 12 and 14.

It is to be understood that there are air outlet or blowing pipes, asabove described, in each of the hoods 26, 26a and 26b and suction pipes'tla and 5th; disposed, as above described. The suction pipe to theright is marked Stia and the pipe to the left is marked 5%. The blowerpipes 40a, 41a and 45a are in the right hood and pipes dilb, dlb and4-51; are in the eft hood.

At times the cotton tends to bunch up and form comparatively large wadsthat partially close the lower ends 25 of the suction pipes $23, 59a and59b.

in order to dislodge the accumulated cotton of these wads I provide asweep or scraper arm "it? for each suction pipe. These arms operate onvertical shafts '72 which are attached to the side of the suction pipesand are given reciprocating motion by the rods 74- which are drivencrankwise by the crank plates 75 on shafts '76. The rods 74 areconnected to cranks 77 on shafts '72. Shaft '76 is driven by belts 79connected through gears 81 and belt 82 to drive shaft 34 which is one ofthe operating shafts of cleaner 63.

The reciprocating motion given each sweep arm '79 cuts across the openend of each suction pipe Sb continuously and keeps cotton from ballingup and forming a wad at this position.

It is to be understood that there is similar construction at the bottomend of each ofthe three suction pipes 5t Ella and dob, previously shown.

The air, after entering and leaving each of the blowers i2, 13 and lid,is transferred through exit pipes as, filla and dllb to the inletreceiver 62; of a cotton cleaner 63. This cotton cleaner is ofconventional construction and is of the same type used in cotton ginsand is well known to the art.

From the cotton cleaner the air, with cotton entrained, exits throughpipe 65 and is transferred to the cage 7.

It will be noted that the hoods 26, 26a and 26!) are arranged on thefront of the entire machine body so that they run in the ditch area Fbetween the plant rows A and C, etc. A flexible strip 260 runs near theearth at the rear of each hood. At the middle the hoods are off theground as at G, so that cotton may be blown under the central lower edgeof the hood and into the area within it. The machine will handle all ofthe two rows shown, as well as a part of the loose cotton in rowspositioned adjacent to the outside hoods 26a and 26b at one pass.

in use the machine is driven through a field having rows of cotton withcertain rows, such as A and C, included between the hoods as shown. Onetrip down the rows is termeda pass. After a trip down the rows A and Cas shown the machine is moved to the left or to the right, as desired,and two other rows are included between the adjacent hoods. This processis continued until all rows have been cleaned.

It is to be noted that the principal improved operation of this machineis due to the structure which forces air 6 over the ground area wherethe plants are growing and the ground around them, and into the plantsalso, in order to dislodge loose cotton (sometimes called down cotton)and into the area within each hood, so that this cotton is immediatelysucked up by the blowers at the front of the machine and carried intothe cleaner 63 and then carried into the bin or cage 7 for transport tothe gin.

It is to be noted that in FIGURE transmission of the power from theengine 6 to several of the component parts i is illustrated. Thus, thepulley 13, which drives shaft 1), is driven through bevel 85 by motorshaft 33. Also note that the pulley on cleaner 63 is driven by belt 3%from pulley 8'? on motor shaft 83. It is also noted that pulley 84drives a belt leading to the drive shaft of blower 3t) and that thepulley is driven by motor shaft 83. (See FiG- URES 1 and 10.)

The front end of the subframe (l is raised and lowered by hydrauliccylinder 11. The subframe pivots on pins 9 attached to the base of themain frame 2. In this way the front end may be raised sufficiently sothat the whole machine may be run over the ground, with the hoods aboveground level.

Cotton salvaged in this manner is comparatively clean and free fromdebris and dirt and is accepted at the gin at a superior rating.

From the foregoing it will be understood that the hoods 26, 26a and 26bconfine the loose cotton disturbed by the drafts from blow pipes 40 and41 and from the forwardly directed exit opening 48 of blow pipe 45.While this loose cotton is disturbed it is drawn into the suction pipes50a, 5%, dill). The drafts from the blow pipes lift the cotton from theground or plants where it is resting, but do not disturb or lift leaves,stems or other field trash to any appreciable extent.

I claim:

1. A cotton salvaging machine composed of a self propelled tractiveimplement having a body, an engine thereon, a cotton cleaner and acotton receiving cage, suction fans having inlet and exhaust pipes, ablower fan mounted on said frame, a plurality of hoods having side wallsand rounded front and rear ends disposed on the front of the body withtheir lower edges normally disposed slightly above the surface of theearth of the cotton field over which the implement is moved, verticallyextending suction pipes having their lower ends near the surface of theearth, and disposed within the rear portion of said hoods, connected tothe inlet pipes of said suction fans, pipes connecting the outlet pipesof said fans to the inlet of said cotton cleaner and a pipe connectingthe outlet pipes of said cotton cleaner with said cotton receiving cage;blow pipes connected to said blower fan and opening nearer ground levelat the rear of each hood to direct a stream of air over the earth andlift cotton tufts from the ground and urge them toward the ends of saidsuction pipes; blow pipes connected to said blower fan having outletopenings disposed to direct a draft of air transversely over the groundbetween said hoods and carry cotton tufts toward adjacent suction pipeopenings.

2. The machine as described in claim 1 wherein the ends of the suctionpipes are provided with mechanically driven sweeps which scrape over theends of the pipe and dislodge wads of cotton therefrom.

3. A cotton salvaging machine composed of a self propelled tractiveimplement having a frame body, an engine therein, a cotton cleanerhaving an inlet pipe and an outlet pipe mounted in said body, and acotton receiving cage mounted on said body frame, a plurality of suctionfans having inlet pipes and outlet pipes mounted on said body andoperatively connected to said engine and a blower fan having an inletpipe and an outlet pipe mounted on said body and operated by saidengine, a subframe pivotally attached to the front end of said body, aplurality of oval shaped open topped vertically extending hoods mountedon said subframe in transversely spaced relation and aligned with cottonplant rows in the field to be traversed, said hoods having flexible rearbottom edges disposed close to ground level, vertically extendingsuction pipes having their lower ends near the surface of the earth, anddisposed within the rear portion of said hoods, connected to the inletpipes of said suction fans, pipes connecting the outlet pipes of saidsuction fans to the inlet of said cotton cleaner and a pipe connectingthe outlet pipe of said cotton cleaner with said cotton receiving cage;blow pipes connected to the outlet pipe of said blower fan and openingslightly above ground level at the rear of each hood to direct a streamof air over the earth covered by said hoods and adapted to lift cottontufts from the ground and urge them toward the open ends of said suctionpipes; blow pipes connected to said blower fan having outlet openingsdisposed to direct a draft of air transversely over the ground betweensaid hoods and carry cotton tufts toward said suction pipe openings.

4. The machine as described in claim 3 wherein the hoods are attached toand supported on the pivotally at- 10 2,707,364

6 tached subframe at the front of said frame body whereby the loweredges of said hoods are vertically adjustable relative to the surface ofthe earth over which the machine travels.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,400,522 Cannon Dec. 20, 1921 2,673,436 Urban Mar. 30, 1954 Wagnon May3, 1955

